Spain's Inditex, the world's largest fashion retailer and owner of the Zara brand, has reported bumper profits for the first quarter as it pursued an ambitious programme of international expansion.
Profits for the February-April period totalled €332m, up 10.3% from a year earlier. Sales leapt 11% to €2.96 billion.
The group said it opened 110 stores in 29 different countries during the quarter, bringing the total to 5,154 as of April 30 2011.
They included the opening of Zara's first store in Australia, which increased the number of countries where Inditex sells its products to 78.
Inditex, whose other brands include youth label Bershka and the upmarket Massimo Dutti, also plans its first stores in South Africa, Taiwan and Peru before the end of the year.
It said e-commerce operations of Zara, currently present in 16 European countries, would begin in the US from September.
